Bonded
by Pachelbel
Summary: Yami makes a deal with Malik after the events in 'Slave'. Who would have thought that his night with Yugi could bring about the end of the world? [discontinued]
1. Chapter One

A/N: I don't write romances. Did I mention that? Because I don't....that's 'cause I'm a cynical bitch. *grins* So, here I am, writing my only slashy-but-not-a-romance story. Now keep in mind, I speak English, French, and Sindarin. Not Japanese. So I've left out a lot of the Japanese sayings that other authors have. I've also taken 'fanfic authoress liberties' with Malik and the canon as a whole. And read 'Slave' by Silvara Maxwell first to understand this. It's my version of the sequel, since she has one in the making. And be sure to leave her a review! Lazy readers are awful.

Disclaimer: Not mine. No, really, it's not. Not Yu-Gi-Oh! And not even the story from whence (whence...hehe, I love Lord of the Rings) this ficlet came from.

  
  


Bonded

I stay up at night and study the young mortal beside me. He seemed so pure when I first noticed him.... No, he still does. With the moonlight spilling in through the large windows and pouring across the carpet, Yugi is ethereal and peaceful.

So unlike me. It's ironic that I should be the one on the lightest half of the bed. That I should be the one to cast the shadows on his face, rather than the other way around. He ought to be the Dark half of us, for darkness is deceptive, like my aibou.

Me? I am lost. I am naive. And that is why I love him. He is my soul, in every sense of the word; what I lack, he has mastered. He owns me.

I'm up before Yugi's new noise maker can go off. I still don't know how to turn it off, so I pretend to be annoyed by it and gently nudge Yugi awake. "You have to get up." Someone ought to hire me as an actor.

"Mm..." he slaps one of the buttons, lies around for a bit and then gathers some clothing and stumbles off to the bathroom.

I hate myself for missing him. I hate the desire to follow him. I want to hate the gentle smile on his face when he returns to his room to gather his school supplies.

He looks up at me. "Are you coming with me to school today?"

I nod. "Of course, aibou."

The silence of the Puzzle is smothering, even though I can hear what is going on around us. The voice of the teacher; Joey's snoring; the light scratching of Yugi's pencil across a piece of paper. But inside here it is quiet, and I idly begin to play with the colors of my soul room.

/Yami?/

My heart skips a beat at his soft voice. //What is it?//

I can picture his frown as he picks and chooses which words to use with me. I wonder, though, why he is being so careful. /Is something wrong?/

I force myself to yawn, to make what I say believable. //No, nothing. I am bored, I suppose. Don't worry about me. You ought to be studying.//

I hear his pencil move around some more. /Bakura has an idea for us after school.../ his voice is seductive, but I shudder in revulsion. I manage to keep my reaction well hidden from the other mind. I couldn't stand to have Bakura's hands on me again. At least not today. The mere thought of Bakura touching Yugi sickens me. The knowledge that my aibou welcomes the white-haired teen torments me.

Now it's my turn to choose words carefully. //I don't think I'll be able to join you two.// I don't have an explanation for him, not one that wouldn't hurt him, so I don't offer anything more.

/Why not?/ He sounds hurt anyway, and I feel the twinge of concern through our 'bond'.

//I'm tired, aibou.// I was going to say 'I have a headache' but from what Tristan says that's a classic way to get yourself into an argument. It's called 'the oldest lie'. Apparently it's not as old as me, or else my wives were just too afraid to tell me when they didn't want to bed with me. Besides, a headache? I'm dead. By rights, I shouldn't be capable of pain.

And yet I am. It's one of the many things Yugi has changed about me.

  
  


I go for a walk after Yugi has wandered off with Bakura. I find my eyes are trapped somewhere near my feet; I'm slouching, and my hands are jammed down into my pockets. It's disgusting. What would my mother have said? My father...? I know what he would have done, had he ever really taken the time to notice me. He would have slapped me, straightened me up, and sent me off with a nursemaid or a tutor. 

Time was something he never had enough of, and it ran out when he was eighteen. I was only three, but I remember seeing the knife sliding up under his ribs. I still remember the smirk on that traitor's face. Then I had screamed, and as I sobbed the palace guards ran in. They were too late to save my father, but just on time to take the head of the assassin and display it for my mother.

My time ran out not when I was seventeen and sealed away into a Millennium Item, but when I realized I loved Yugi.

"Hey, Yugi!" I turn, knowing full well that Joey has mistaken me for my Light. As he runs up, he realizes this as well. "Oh, sorry. Thought you were Yug. Where is he, anyway?"

"With Bakura." I turn to walk away, but Joey wants to keep talking.

"Oh. Thought you'd be with 'em."

"Hm. Why are you looking for him?" If I'm not his lover, I may as well be his secretary.

Joey shrugs. "I wasn't really, I just saw you and thought I'd say hi. Did you have a fight or somethin?"

I shake my head slightly. "I'm tired." Only the fact that I'm going for a walk if I'm so exhausted doesn't make sense. Oh well.

Joey grins devilishly. "I see."

I want to smack him, but restrain myself. "Do you want to join me?" It seems like the polite thing to ask a friend of Yugi's. I didn't expect him to accept my offer, but he does. Stupid unpredictable mortal.

I lead the way to the busier side of town, mostly because there's more to see there than what the high school field had to offer.

"Jeez you're quiet!"

"I apologize."

Joey laughs. "Don't apologize! Lighten up, will ya? I didn't think Yugi's alter ego would be so uptight."

"I am not his alter ego," I whisper.

"What?"

"I am not his alter ego!" I yell this at him, and it stops him in his tracks. I hastily walk on.

"Are you okay?" It's been a few minutes, in which Joey thinks I've cooled off.

Yugi no longer bothers to block off his feelings from me. I know what he is doing...what is being done to him. I cringe, and close the bond. Joey's eyes are worried as he stares at me, hand on my shoulder. "It really...bothers you about them, doesn't it?"

"You don't understand..." my voice is no more than a whisper.

"Yeah? Maybe I do." His voice is still confident and cheery. I glare at him, feeling mocked although a part of me knows that's not what he's trying to do.

"No, you don't! You?" I laugh scornfully. "How could you? Even if you shared the feelings that I have for Yugi, you would still be a stupid mortal. You would still be here, destined to *die*, and you would have the comfort of knowing that Yugi would mourn *your* passing!"

Joey's hand is uncomfortable on my shoulder; he clearly doesn't remember that it is there. For a moment, I imagine sleeping with him, letting Yugi find us as I found him and Bakura. But I know that my aibou would only be happy for me; he'd be glad that he and Bakura would no longer have to split their time with me. So instead, my fist meets Joey's lips instead of my mouth. His lip splits between his teeth and my knuckles, but my hand is unharmed. I'm dead. Only Yugi can hurt me now. Joey falls back, bleeding, onto the sidewalk. I run across the street and into the busy crowd.

I have no intention of going back to the Moto house. I don't have anywhere else to go, but on the other hand, I don't need anywhere at all to go. I turn down one of the side streets and pass by dozens of little, struggling shops. I become aware that someone is watching me, which is strange because I know I'm alone.

I tap into my Shadow magic and try to pinpoint exactly where my stalker is. Out of the shop just to my side, a slender figure steps out and I nearly jump.

Malik smiles, a vicious expression on him, and moves ever closer to me. I am not in the mood for a battle, but I will never give him any ground, so I turn to face him and wait until he is inches from me.

"Care for a duel, or are you too busy sulking?" The dagger-edge of his Millennium Rod brushes the chain around my neck. I knock it away as if it were a fly.

"I don't have time for you."

"As I thought. Pathetic. Always lost in your own world." His eyes are still locked on the Puzzle.

If Malik were an ordinary opponent, I would take him up on the challenge. A duel would probably help to clear my mind. But Malik is not ordinary, or even sane. I'd be wise to run, except that I have even more power than he does.

"So that we can wager on what is rightfully mine?" I sneer at him. "If you come up with something less predictable, I may consider wasting my time with you."

Malik's hand flicks backwards from where I had knocked it, so fast I could barely see him move. Involuntarily, I take a step backwards. If I had been joined with Yugi, it would have cut the boy's throat. 

Malik laughs. "Idiot. Fine. I have a wager that even you will find interesting. If I win, we take down Bakura. You will protect your precious host, and I will get the Ring. If you win, you go on your dismal way and cry yourself to sleep tonight while I go get drunk."

Now he's managed to surprise me, somewhat, as well as anger me. "I accept. Let's duel." I reach for my cards.

"No." He lifts the Rod, just a bit. "Puzzle, turn the piece that was polluted to my control. Bend this spirit's mind to my will; make him mine. As I will, this you shall do."

I have to rethink the notion that only Yugi can hurt me. As Malik finishes speaking, everything inside of me rebels, turning in on itself as if I am being devoured. The world becomes warped; colors bleed together and fade, until all is grey and black, and shapes are meaningless.

Malik's voice is distorted when he speaks. "Before we kill him, I'll be sure to thank Bakura for polluting your Item, Pharaoh."


	2. Chapter Two

A/N: Readers of my diary series better listen...*sniffle* the Two Towers has come out. Slowly but surely, my mind has gone back to Middle-earth. And back to poor Glorfindel, who I left blind and pretty much stranded in the wilderness, and Legolas who will never get his friends back from Vlad Tepes! (No, really, I did; look at 'Hidden Starlight'.) So this story, 'Bonded', will be my last new YGO fic for a while. Updates to the diaries will be slower. I'M SO SORRY! Curse J.R.R. Tolkien if you must! Send hate mail to Peter Jackson! I know I will! Just thought I'd warn you. So, I've decided to try one chapter with a host from the show. Cuz it's fun to read those and I'd like to write one.

*Yami Yugi steps out, dressed in the 'patented' brown corduroy suit from YYMO and reads the above notes*

YY: Did you just plug one of your own fics?

Pachelbel: No...*spills a container of White-Out on everything but the mention of Hidden Starlight* ...Ok, maybe.

YY: *rolls eyes* Right. Clearly, Silver doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh. I mean, she's not even Japanese.

Pachelbel: Neither are you!

YY: I was created in Japan, you nitwit. That makes me Japanese.

Pachelbel: *holding a sawed-off shotgun* Keep going with the disclaimer.

YY: *looks at the script, unfazed by the gun* She also doesn't own 'Slave' which is the prequel to this piece of crap.

Pachelbel: Hey!

YY: It is! You hate it, remember?

Pachelbel: Yes, I do...but you're the one suffering from my lack of romance-authoring skills, anyway.

YY: To answer questions, Malik is the main villain in YuGiOh right now. He's cool, suave, sexy and evil. Bakura is Ryou Bakura, Yami Bakura is...well, the psycho half of that deal. The one wading in the shallow end of the gene pool. *has read everything completely monotone. Thinks about what he has said, looks at Silver and back at the script* Anyway...can we start the fic now?

Pachelbel: Read the purple page first.

YY: *flips through 29 pages* You saved ads for chicken grease? And stapled them with the script? *throws the junk mail at the author* It says here that this story is going to be dark and violent...*re-reads part of it* You can't make me do that! It's not cannon!

Pachelbel: *finishes tacking up a 'Alternate Universe' poster on the summary* Yes, I can! A girl's gotta trash the cannon a few times in her fanfic writing life. It's been a while since I did, so here we go!

  
  


Bonded

  
  


I end up staying with Malik all day. I wouldn't have had a choice, even if I had wanted to go home. There is invisible wire binding me to his side, and he is the only clear thing left in the world for me. Mostly Malik has just stayed sitting across from me at a table in a completely deserted restaurant. Neither of us has said more than a few words.

After the first hour, I stood to go (though to me it appeared I was standing on the wall, and Malik was somehow on the ceiling) but I got no further than the door. Malik laughed as I stopped just inside the threshold and had to lean on the doorway for support. I was too sick and dizzy to do anything but follow his voice back to the table, like an anchor to some twisted version of reality.

"You will go nowhere without my permission," he says when I look at him. "All clear?"

I stare at him, wanting to strangle the life out of him, but my body rebels, My head nods in agreement. Cold amusement lights in his eyes when he sees my confusion. We've been sitting there ever since.

I can vaguely feel Yugi searching for me, but Malik stops me from answering. "You may speak with him through your little bond when our errand is done and the Millennium Ring is in my hands."

"Why are you keeping me here?" I demand. "If you want the Ring, let me go find it. Bakura isn't going to come in here and hand it to you."

The blond's expression is almost bored, like a teacher who has been asked a very redundant question. "I don't know how dedicated you are. Nor do I know how good of a liar you are." I don't tell him how uncertain of those things I am myself. "I know you have no remorse when it comes to killing for what you want...but Bakura is someone of importance to your little host, is he not? And it is well known how much you care for the little twit."

I stiffen, open my mouth to defend Yugi, but all that comes out is a near-scream of pain as whatever mental choke collar Malik has put on me tightens.

"So," he speaks as if nothing is happening to me, "you will go and watch them. You will see exactly what it is they have that your 'lover' will never give you. And never forget that Bakura's yami is just as desperate for the Puzzle as I am for the Ring."

The pain disappears slowly. Malik is showing me his strength, to remind me of my place in his schemes.

I grit my teeth until I feel I can speak clearly again. "I know that the Ring isn't the only Item you are after, Malik. How do I know you won't go after the Puzzle while I am getting rid of Bakura?"

In one fluid motion, the other spirit has risen and pressed the sharp edge of his dagger into my neck. "Because I already *have* the Puzzle," he whispers, sliding the knife back with a smirk. "Now go."

And without a protest, I go. I'm frightened to find that I'm almost eager to find the white-haired boy.

***

I assume that he will be with Yugi, or else at his house. I can't remember exactly where Bakura lives, so I go to find my aibou first. I'm stunned when he hugs me and I can't feel it. There's no warmth, no pressure, nothing where he wraps himself around me.

The world is still gray and black, even him. The ceiling is still....somewhere off to the side, the ceiling fan sticking out of the wall where there used to be a door. The door is folded into a corner on the ceiling, which has been carpeted.

I shut my eyes and try to hold Yugi to me, but I can't feel him anymore than I can feel the air around me.

"What's wrong? Where were you?" he asks, his voice muffled because his face is buried in my midriff.

"Nothing, aibou. Nothing is wrong," I whisper, sounding terrified even to myself.

He looks up at me, his eyes glassy. "Where did you go? Joey said that you-"

"I hit him." My grip has tightened, if you can tighten your hold on what you can't feel Yugi gasps and squirms in pain, so I let go.

"Why?" I don't answer. Yugi reaches up and grabs my shoulder, trying to make me look at him. I oblige. "Why did you hit him, Yami?"

"I don't know." I turn away, worried that he will figure out what Malik has done. Malik would kill him if he threatened our...his...plans.

"Did he say something wrong?" Yugi knows how hard I have worked to protect not only him but his friends. We both know that if I were behaving normally, I would never have laid a hand on Joey.

I sigh. There is a warm spark in my mind and memories of when Joey and Tea tried to keep me from finding out about Yugi and Bakura's relationship come flooding back. The anger I felt then, the betrayal that revisits me every night...and above all, the disgrace that I have become. I glare at Yugi, though to me he appears as alien as the rest of the world and cannot be the precious hikari I knew.

"Yes." My own voice is so harsh and low it almost hurts to speak. "He did."

It takes a while for Yugi to recover from his shock. "What did he say?"

I feel Malik's presence in some part of my mind, a part that I have long kept hidden from Yugi. Except once. It is Malik who speaks, because I can't. "It doesn't matter. I shouldn't have done it. He just...doesn't seem to be very happy with the relationship I have with you and Bakura."

"He's not?" Yugi is surprised, and I really doubt that Malik can make him believe Joey would speak badly of us.

"Where is Bakura?" Both Malik and I ask this. It feels wrong to be speaking the same words as the man I consider my most deadly enemy.

"He's out looking for you!" Yugi runs to the phone, at last remembering to tell all of his friends that I'm not really gone.

Twenty minutes later, Bakura is sitting on the couch in between Yugi and I. He is still separating me from the only person I have ever truly loved.

Bakura's dark eyes are full of concern for me, but to me it's like feathers hitting a brick wall. Nothing Bakura has to offer me will ever be accepted. That's just as well, since nothing he offers to me is sincere. It's for Yugi's sake; just like me tolerating him is for Yugi.

*Not any more,* Malik's voice floats into my head. I find myself nodding and stop just before Bakura notices.

"...missed you today." As soon as Malik has stopped talking, I am able to catch the last of Bakura's sentence. Yugi has gone off to the kitchen. At least, I assume he went to the kitchen, because that's where the telephone is kept and it was ringing. Too many noise makers are in this house.

I narrow my eyes, alone at last with Bakura. "Of course you did," I hiss.

"What?"

I remember the first time I saw Bakura after the Puzzle was solved. I remember his Yami crouching over Yugi's still form. He assumed Yugi was gone and that my Puzzle was his. I know that the dangerous thief is still there, and Bakura has done and will do nothing to protect those he calls friends.

He touches my cheek. "Are you alright?"

I don't react, as I can't tell if his hand is really there or not. "I'm fine." The phone is still ringing. "Where is Yugi?"

Bakura frowns, his hand going up to my forehead. It's a stupid action; I have no temperature for him to feel, and even if I did, I don't get sick now. "He went to help his grandfather unload a shipment. Weren't you listening?"

"So we are alone up here?" I look at him out of the corners of my eyes.

He smiles. "Yes."

"Good." I can't tell if it is Malik or me who moves. Perhaps it is both of us again. But my body tackles Bakura, pinning him back on the cushions of the sofa. His hands are instantly on my shirt, undoing the buckles with eery simplicity.

My own hands are on his chest as well, but for a different reason. One hand keeps his Ring pinned down while the other brushes through his hair. Now it has to be Malik; I don't remember enough about death strikes to know how to do what he is planning to do.

My right hand draws back and then plunges down suddenly to Bakura's throat, at the soft hollow pit just above where his clavicle and throat meet. Bakura gags, forgetting my clothes in his panic, and rolls halfway off the couch grabbing at his neck.

His lower half is still pinned under my legs, and I swiftly reach down and yank off his Millennium Ring. I put it on and re-buckle the top part of my shirt to hide it, then strike the back of his neck this time. I know that I missed the spine, so he will live, though for now he's out like a light.

Just after I finish hauling Bakura back onto the couch, Yugi walks in.


	3. Chapter Three

Author's Notes: Hmm...usually, I have songs I like to listen to while I write. NOTHING works while I'm writing this. Always puts me in too-happy mode. I need dark songs! There's one that worked, but more than half of it annoys me. Suggestions? I listen to literally everything but rap. (I listen to rap if it's in French, but Kazaa doesn't seem to have any of the ones I like...)

  
  


"Bakura? Bakura!" Yugi is panicked in a way I've never seen before. I try to copy his tone and the slight shivering of his body as he inspects his lover.

"We were...we were kissing and he started choking and passed out," I force out. I don't know if I'll be able to lie to Yugi. I don't know if I can keep anything from him, whether I want to or not.

Malik has taken me again. "I'll call an ambulance." I frown, as Yugi surely knows I would never have said 'ambulance'. He's too busy to notice.

I pretend to call, then hold a short conversation with the dial tone. When this is done, I place the phone back in its cradle and go back to the living room. I won't stand very close to them, in case Yugi notices I am wearing the Ring. Or worse, Bakura wakes up.

"They're on their way," I say. Yugi looks up at me and nods, still trying to aid Bakura. "I will go outside and watch for them."

I quietly shut the door behind me, trying to block out the imagined scenario my mind keeps conjuring up, in which Yugi realizes I just tried to kill his boyfriend. I slowly turn to face the road and nearly jump out of my skin.

Malik stands barely a foot away from me, smirking. "That wasn't too bad. I didn't think you were so clumsy, though."

"I did what you asked." I slip the Ring off and hand it to him.

"Bakura isn't dead."

I narrow my eyes slightly. "No, but Yugi is expecting the healers. We should leave before he discovers what we did."

"Or rather, what we didn't do?" Malik smiles. "Very well."

I try to convince myself that I haven't forgotten this man is bent on two things: world domination, and torturing the afterlife out of me. I follow him down one dirty street and up another, telling myself over and over that Malik is not to be trusted even the slightest bit.

My feet go after him on their own. They must be; I would never follow this murderer willingly. Never.

  
  


An hour later, I'm standing by the only exit and watching Malik as he debriefs some of his drones. I can feel Yugi frantically clawing to get through to me, but this time Malik is not the only one who has blocked him out. My disappearance was probably suspicious at best, and Bakura has probably told him what happened. Even if my legs could move without Malik pulling the strings, I would have nowhere to go.

So I stay.

The five black-robed figures push past me and vanish into the city smog and grit, off to do their master's bidding.

"Pathetic," I mutter. Malik looks over his shoulder at me as he continues to undo the front of his shirt.

"What is, Pharaoh?" He says my title as if it is a curse.

"Your pawns. That's all they are; expendable, dependent. Useless and incompetent."

He slides his shirt off and tosses it onto the table. His back is tattooed with Egyptian hieroglyphs that I feel I ought to know, but the memory of it floats away like loose ashes after a fire.

"You know a fair bit about being pathetic yourself," he snarls. "The way you fawned over that boy, your 'protege'. It's disgusting. At least my slaves won't rebel against me if I screw who I want."

"Your opinions of my actions, Ishtal, add up to-"

"This isn't about my opinion, Pharaoh!" A bottle he has thrown at me shatters by my right ear, showering the floor with glass and alcohol. "Right now, we're talking about you."

He crosses the room easily, never letting his gaze falter from me. His blue eyes glint dully, filled with a frosty hate that I know he feels for no one but me. Perhaps because he wants to see me react, he has released my body from its 'puppet' state.

"What about me?" I glare at him.

He folds his arms over his bare chest and stares evenly back at me. "Granted you probably don't remember everything...I know you remember being a Pharaoh." I nod once. "You don't remember having my father killed. Or maybe you do. Do you know how many people were slaughtered, senselessly, because of *you*?"

My teeth grind against one another as I struggle not to let any emotional reaction show. I swallow and nod again, not trusting myself to speak. Malik's expression, if possible, becomes even more bitter.

"It was a long time ago, wasn't it," he whispers, no longer looking me in the eye although I am no less chilled because of it.

"Perhaps." I think back to the last time I allowed myself to think about the darker side of my past life. It was on that night that Yugi and I...

Malik knows what I am thinking about. I can tell because whatever it is he has done to me, to the Puzzle, suddenly flares to life and brings me to my knees as I cry out in pain.

He yanks me back up, one hand tight on my shoulder and the other squeezing my throat. "Forget him." Malik says, venomously. "You are mine now." He slams me against the wall. "Mine!"

I gasp reflexively, trying to ease the pain. "M..al..."

"You were a Pharaoh! You ruled my people! My father and my *sister* dedicated their lives to you! You killed without regret, without thought! You sealed away darkness!" His hands are shaking, but like iron shackles they do not loosen their hold on me. "You were not meant to serve a sniveling brat!"

I want to defend Yugi. Normally, I do not care what other people say, especially not when they are maniacal enemies of mine. But to attack Yugi is an affront to everything I have let myself become.

"Why...do...you care?" I force out, though it is more of a croak against his hands.

"Because I know what you were." He releases me suddenly. "I know...that as you are now, you are not worth my time. It's revolting to constantly be thinking of you, while you sit around acting as a poorly paid prostitute. I will not kill such a miserable wretch; I'm not that merciful."

I rub at my neck and let myself wonder at what Malik is saying. "You mean that you pity me."

He smiles, a bare movement of the corners of his lips. "Yes." I stiffen, resenting it all the more now that he has admitted it so triumphantly.

His form of 'pity' does not mean that his heart has softened. Staring into his eyes, I know full well that if his feelings of 'pity' do not stop annoying him, he'll take it out on those who least deserve his wrath.

"I'll make you what you were," he says, so low that it's no more than a growl and soft breath against my neck.

I never realized how utterly insane he is. I may never understand why he is but at the moment, being told that he has ensnared my body until he thinks I am as cruel as he has imagined I was simply so that he can feel content when he kills me...I know that I don't *want* to know what twisted his mind.

Whatever torture he went through will not excuse what he is doing now. I won't let him hurt Yugi.

He steps back. "Go have some fun."

I just stand there, baffled. I won't even bother to think of what Malik would consider 'fun'; how am I supposed to be anything but frustrated in this labyrinth he has created out of the world?

I feel a thin tendril of fear come through my bond with Yugi, something more than just the anxiety of not knowing where I am. 

/Aibou?/

//...Yami...//

Something is happening to him. My warped surroundings lurch with every step I take and I am more than certain that I must look drunk. It doesn't matter. I have to get to Yugi.

It doesn't take me as long as I feared it would. True, each time I put my foot down it feels as if it has taken me twenty minutes to get it there, but surely that can't be true.

Crouching over Yugi is a filthy street thug; my other half is curled up, lying on the street. One of the thug's friends is standing nearby, watching and jeering. Instantly, by some unexpected blessing from Malik, my senses return. The world is as it should be, except for one thing: Yugi is in danger.

I leap into the fray and shove the lookout against the wall. He crashes through a large glass window and lies still, crying as blood already streams from the gashes on his legs.

I use Shadow Magic to attack the next opponent. He is wrenched up to his feet, staring in wide-eyed horror at me. With the same martial skill Malik used against Bakura, I take him down. There are no games this time to ensure my victory. Nothing but fist and foot against the enemy's soft flesh.

It is only after the two men are down, bleeding and groaning on the sidewalk, that I realize...Yugi is gone.


	4. Chapter Four

A/N: Thank you SO much, Llyxius and Asuka02redeva! I know that the music I listen to while I write either brings up or drags down the quality of the particular piece. I'm much more satisfied with this chapter than the last, so thank you! (And hopefully you all enjoy it...even if you don't, you can still fall in love with Evanescence like me *grin*)

  
  


Bonded

  
  


"Yugi!" my tortured yell echoes in my head and the vibration seeks to tear my mind apart. I've been calling to him, both physically and through our bond, for I cannot guess how long. "Aibou! Please, answer me!"

A woman walks by and gives me a strange look. In this strange world she manages to walk about on the wall of a nearby chocolate store. She clutches her purse more tightly and hastens her 'escape'. As soon as she is gone, I hear laughter behind me. It is frigid and clear. The clarity is what alerts me to the fact that Malik has found me, yet again.

"Where is he?" I demand, feeling certain that Malik has had something to do with it. His feral smile is proof enough.

"Yugi?" He laughs again, pushing idly with his boot at the bloody body of one of the thugs. He frowns when it groans, and kicks it. Then again, and again, until it is silent and still. "He's not here."

"I know that!" I move toward him, intent on doing *something* to this maniac to relieve my frustration and fear.

"He was never here, you fool!" Malik locks gazes with me and stops me in my tracks. "They were only scrounging through the evening's trash for food."

He grins blissfully when he sees my reaction. "No, Yami...I think that Yugi is safe at the hospital with his boyfriend. He's worried for Ryou, not you. What thought should he give to you anyway, except when he hears about what you did?" His murky violet eyes watch me gleefully. "Do you think he'll accept you back, or will he shatter the Puzzle to seal away a creature as dangerous as you?"

"Was that what you were after all along then, Ishtal?" I feel my body quiver with fear and rage. Everything feels cold to me right now.

He makes a small, irritated noise. "Hardly. Not that you are much help. You can't even hold up an end of a bargain that you ought to enjoy."

A terrible thought comes into my mind. If my situation were reversed with Malik, I know where I would go...and who I would hurt, while my slave was beating helpless bystanders. "Where were you?"

He is only too happy to tell me. "I visited Yugi while he slept."

"What did you do to him?" I try to grab him, but he steps back and hold up his arms so that the only thing I get are his forearms. He looks disgusted at my touch.

"Nothing half as bad as what you are going to do to him."

*~*~*

Malik has returned my senses to normal, at least somewhat. I have trouble with stairs, but I no longer see things on the ceiling or in corners where they shouldn't be. As always, this little freedom is only for his pleasure. He forces me to watch TV program in which a young woman is reporting live from the spot where we left the two homeless men.

Flashing blue and red lights alternately wash out her face and illuminate the gruesome, glass-strewn scene behind her. In the grisly kaleidoscope, I catch glimpses of Yugi, and can vaguely hear him calling my name.

"...A terrible tragedy which the police are hesitant to peg as gang violence..."

"...Yami?"

Then her voice continues with her report in falsely saddened tones, "...Never before have we had any problems with violence against the homeless...."

Yugi stares in horror at the broken windows; at the stretcher two paramedics are carrying away. The body is covered from head to toe in a clean white death shroud.

Surely he knows that the body isn't me?

Malik smirks. "Oh, he knows. He also knows that you are the one who did all this."

"I didn't kill that boy!"

Malik shrugs. "I made his death quicker and less painful, but rest assured that he wouldn't have lived no matter what I did or did not do."

"But you...you tricked me." I slump over in my chair, clawing at my scalp in an effort to make this situation unreal. "I wouldn't have done that if you hadn't made me see Yugi."

He sneers at me, "And who are you going to tell that to, Pharaoh? Would the police believe you? Even if Yugi does, what is he supposed to do about it? This can't be simply forgotten. If he could, he would turn you in."

  
  


**...it is dark...searing pain, and a wall of frozen metal that stops me from returning to my home. The bright sky and warm sands are lost to me, and in its place is a choking, lightless wasteland where I am alone except for the demons which have ever plagued my mind...**

  
  


I sit up with a gasp, seeing blurry images of the room and Malik, who is sitting as cooly as ever.

  
  


**...No! This isn't right...I take it back...whatever I did or said, I didn't mean it... don't leave me in here...a thousand millennia, but please, not for eternity...I am supposed to be with my family...I can hear them crying...But now....I can hear my heart slowing...it hurts, Ra, it hurts...the blood is freezing on its course through my body, because there is no more strength to pump it...it sounds as if an entire ocean has been pushed into my head...I'm dying all over again...Alone...in the Puzzle...**

  
  


The memories continue to push out reality. I will not scream. I won't.

  
  


**...The pain is almost gone. I'm numb all over. ...no...there is a light...forming in thin, eggshell-thin cracks all over the distanceless walls around me, slowly expanding, tearing me apart with it. Everything I knew is leaving...my first child, held so proudly in my arms...his name has been forgotten; perhaps it slipped out into the light. My name...my name is...**

  
  


In my head, the light erupts and the painful image exhausts me. I wish I could go to my soul room. Malik won't allow it.

  
  


*~*~*

Night only deepens as I continue to worry. I take a ride to Yugi's house on the back of Malik's motorcycle, though I'm not sure I want to be near my hikari if Malik is so eager to let me be.

I feel icy resentment, growing more powerful by the second, at the 'appreciation' I can't seem to reason away of Malik's lean, well-toned body. His muscular frame is warm and strong in front of me, and as a final slap in the face, I find I enjoy having my arms around him. I keep my hands still through sheer willpower, one on his chest and the other across his stomach. I long to pull him even closer to me...

It's not easy, keeping control of myself, and I think he knows what thoughts are in my head at the moment. What I can't help but think of, when his silky blond hair gently tickles my face and brings with it the faint scent of almonds.

I jump off the instant the bike finishes squealing to a halt. That blasted Egyptian doesn't abandon my imagination until I am inside Yugi's room. Yes...it is Yugi I want, and no one else. Not even Malik.

I don't dare touch him; Yugi is so beautiful when he sleeps. "Aibou," I whisper. He whimpers. "Yugi...aibou." I brush my fingers over his cheek, and slowly his eyes open.

"Yami?" He stares at me, and for that small moment I can pretend that things are as I want them to be; that Yugi loves me as much as I want him to. Then his lip quivers and tears fall down his cheeks, erasing my touch from the world. I feel as if I've been kicked. *I* made him cry.

The light from the hallway fades, and I can tell just from the silhouette that Malik is standing behind me in the doorway.

I rush closer to Yugi. "What...what did he do to you, Yugi?"

He wrenches away from me when I try to hold him. "He woke Ryou in the hospital," Yugi chokes out. "And I know what you did, Yami!"

His eyes plead for me to deny it and I almost do. Then Malik laughs. 

"Stupid child." He glares savagely at Yugi. "What did you expect? 'Yami' was cursed for a *reason*...and it wasn't to wait around 5,000 years for *you*. His powers are too great to be controlled by a weak hearted, simpering child. He got what he wanted out of you, and now it is time for the Pharaoh to move on. Deal with it."

I don't - can't - say anything and it hurts my aibou even more. Foreign words are torn from my throat. "Cry all you want, Yugi. Your pain is the only gratification I'll ever receive from you anyway. And I promise, there will be a lot *more* pain before I am satisfied."

He doesn't look at me. He stares at his lap and sobs. "Yami, I'm sorry."

I fight what Malik is unearthing in the darkest part of my heart. I fight and fight, but all it does is make my voice more strangled and hushed; more angry sounding. 

"You should be." Once the words are out, he is too shocked and hurt to say or do anything, except sit there and stare at me with utter confusion.

Malik lightly drags a hand across my chest and presses me against him.

More words are spoken in my voice. "I want to be with Malik. Duel him so that I won't be dragged back *here* again."

Yugi nods quickly. I want to kill the people who are making him hurt this way. I want to torture them...I want to make him smile.

Malik whispers darkly in my ear, "Are we done here then?"

I look back at Yugi. Malik's closeness has fogged my mind with...I'd rather not think about it. I want to say something to my Light and the words elude me; so I can only nod, after a long, quiet minute. Malik leads the way to the bike.

I've left Yugi alone, confused, and frightened in the dark.


	5. Chapter Five

A/N: Nope, this isn't a romance. It's angst and chaos, and revenge and hate. Well, there is some interaction between Malik and Bakura, actually. (If you like Yami/Malik, then try out 'Solace'. It will eventually have them together, in a sense.) Also, I'm never using MicrosoftWord again! Stupid program*grumbles* deletes paragraphs *grumbles some more*

  
  


Bonded

Daylight finds Malik and Yugi dueling. 

Yugi's voice is listless and resigned when he calls out his moves, and his eyes never even meet the holographic monsters he and Malik are summoning.

"This is almost insulting, Yugi," Malik snarls, when my other half's life points are at 100 and my enemy's are still 4000. It is Ishtar's turn now. "I expected something at least resembling a fight from you, but now I see that it was Yami who truly had the courage all along."

Yugi's hand, the one holding his drawn cards, shakes. "I won't force the Spirit to come back to me. He wants to be with you."

It is too much for me now. My mind cries out, bent on Yugi somehow knowing that I still love him. One word is formed. /No!/

Malik turns to me, while at the same time Yugi's head lifts and stares at me from across the room. Realization dawns...my thought got through to him.

"Attack, Beast of Talwar, Mr. Volcano!" The first strike takes out Yugi's facedown Stone Soldier. The second erases his life points. 

~***~

The duel now seems at least a lifetime ago. The feeling of being ages ahead of where I ought to be is due to the fact that Malik has been showing me centuries of history that I've missed. We sit across from one another in his soul room; a strange room, not quite what I expected to find...but not all that surprising, either.

I thought I would find tortured screams and bleeding walls, cages of decaying people...but maybe such expectations were just my own sick mind at work. Malik's soul room is without walls or anything structured, but it is so tight and close in here I feel as if I've been buried alive. The sky is a swirl of blue and green and yellow stars, smeared against a black canvas; just as if a child had been finger painting on the ceiling. 

The trees around us are far out of reach, though I have no reason to go to them. The starlight is bright enough to see by, but cool enough that I would never need shade. Their heavy black leaves bend the tree trunks almost to the ground.

We sit on pitch-black grass that tickles my skin, even through my clothes. Far below us in a valley lies Egypt. Not the desert kingdom I knew; it is changed...it is Malik's.

My young 'Master' ignores the view entirely. His eyes are closed as he sends years and years of history floating through the room. My mind absorbs it all. There is so much to see that I'm in shock at my own ability to just accept this as fact.

Malik opens his eyes and stares at me. "Now we are going to look back to your time, Pharaoh."

My stomach clenches. The vague memories I've managed to recover are very confusing, and so frustrating...and here is my most hated adversary, offering to make sense of my past life.

'Offering' is the wrong word. Malik hasn't given me a choice. He forces my mind open, allowing thousands of memories to erupt in my mind. The first is further back than when I was placed in the Puzzle. There are more details of my children, of my wife and concubines. Of the slaves...of war...the priests, and sleepless nights worrying over my people. Of criminals I had killed; tortures that I helped to invent... And abruptly, it goes away. The memories fade, like dying embers that I am afraid to touch, even to revive. 

"That is all I can show you," Malik says. "To get your memories back would require a tool I don't yet have. And quite frankly, there's only *one* memory I even *want* you to have."

I feel myself forced back into my own chamber, and I am grateful for that. Mine is a dangerous place, even for me, but I feel free in here. It is still a dusty Egyptian tomb, but now some of the hieroglyphs on the walls shine in the scattered torchlight; they've been filled with polished alabaster and gold. My bed is no longer old-looking. The leather bands have magically become stronger, now pulled taught between the black walnut-wood bed posts. I collapse into it, my mind reeling over the things I have discovered of my past.

  
  


I should have known all along that Bakura and Malik were working together. I wonder now what could possibly have sapped up my time and attention to the point that I would have overlooked such an obvious problem.

I won't blame Yugi for this…I won't. It's not Yugi's fault that Ryou's yami is a traitorous, psychotic former Tomb Robber who happens to be the lover of my new…hikari? Master? Host? I don't know if any of those apply to Malik.

Bakura suddenly shoves Malik away and looks at me. Malik is gasping after their session of 'tonsil hockey' and glares in annoyance at Bakura.

"What's wrong with you?" Malik growls slightly when he isn't answered and moves forward so he is standing possessively beside his lover. "The Pharaoh hasn't exactly stopped you before. Ignore him."

I look away. I'm used to being talked about as if I'm a piece of furniture, or an ugly painting.

Bakura doesn't respond to the playful nips at his neck, or the roaming hands, or… I look away again, determined that this time I won't look back. But that proves impossible when the white-haired spirit says, "No…why doesn't he join us?"

Malik stops, looking utterly horrified. "The Pharaoh? Him?"

"Yes," Bakura hisses, moving in on me. I glare up at him as warningly as I can. Which isn't saying much, considering I can't move my legs.

Malik's expression is one of complete disgust. He stares at me as if I've crawled out of a sewer; or, perhaps a better analogy, like I am a fly in his soup.

Meanwhile, Bakura straddles my waist. My hands are still free, perhaps because Malik hasn't recovered from his shock yet. Not that I know what to do. I can't decide if I care enough to push the spirit of the Ring off, or if I should just let him have his way. I suppose whatever I choose, Malik will make me do the opposite. My shoulders drop slightly as I relax, resigned to the fact that nothing I do matters.

Bakura plays with me for a while before turning away sharply. "Release him."

"No." Malik is polishing the Rod. He notices the tomb robber standing up, but outwardly ignores him.

"I said release him!" Bakura hisses. Still, he is ignored. He closes his hands around my Puzzle (which hangs around Malik's neck) and wrenches it close to him. Malik stabs the knife-end of the Rod into Bakura's shoulder.

At first I'm shocked, but that quickly disappears when I see how much the thief enjoys it.


End file.
